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Thursday, August 25, 2016

A friend of mine asked me to bring a vegetable dish to a wedding open house for her daughter who was married out of town. I decided to see what I could actually do that would befit the occasion. That's when I found this recipe for a Zucchini and Carrot Roses Tart. It was beautiful, but could I make something like that? I decided to try.

Of course, I had to fiddle with the recipe some. I decided to use crescent roll dough out of the can instead of puff pastry. Since I didn't have multi-colored carrots, I decided to use yellow summer squash as well as zucchini and orange carrots. I also added more salt and pepper.

Warm half vegetable strips in microwave for 20-30 seconds. This makes them more pliable. Choose one vegetable strip and roll it into a spiral. Add another strip of the same vegetable around it to make it into a rosebud. Place the vegetable bud upright into the center of the cheese. The cheese mixture will hold it in place. Choose a different vegetable and make another rosebud. Place the varied colors of vegetable buds in the cheese creating a spiral starting from the middle toward the outer edge. Squeeze as many as you can in. Warm the other half of the vegetables in the microwave and continue until the pan is full.

Brush the tops of the vegetables with the olive oil. Sprinkle the oregano and pepper over the top.

Bake at 375F for 45-55 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Cut into wedges or squares. Makes 8-10 servings.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

If you went out and asked ten people "What is heaven to you?" you would probably get ten different answers. And they would probably be along the lines of:

"A place where I can eat all I want, of whatever I want, never exercise, and stay a perfect size 8."

"Endless time and a mountain of books."

"The end of suffering and pain."

"One big, long party!"

"Being the star player on the team that everyone adores."

I know that I remember thinking about the passage where Jesus tells the Sadducees, "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." (Matthew 22:30) On reading that, I thought, how could it be heaven if I'm not with Jim? But just like the people above, I had a wrong idea of heaven.

Photo Credit: My friend, Joy Delzer

I was using the word heaven as an idea. One of the dictionary definitions of heaven is "a state of supreme bliss." You see, I thought heaven was all about me.

The Bible teaches us that Heaven is a very real place, not an idea or a state of being. And it is definitely not about me...or you. It is a place where those who go there will live in perfect communion with God and worship Him. It's about God.

The Bible tells us that all tears will be wiped away (Revelation 21:4) and in His "presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). So we will be happy, but our happiness will come from God Himself.

In fact, we won't be worried about the injustices we experienced on earth, or the difficulties we encountered, or even mourning those who are not saved because our focus will be on God.I'm pretty sure that in that "twinkling of an eye" between life on earth and heaven our priorities will change completely. Everything that was so important on earth will suddenly become so insignificant we will wonder why we ever wasted a thought on it. Every. Single. Thing. So the big question for me is why do I spend so much energy planning, worrying, fretting, and protecting? I need a better vision of heaven, but more than that I need a better relationship with God. When He becomes the most important thing in my life, then everything else falls into proper perspective. Including my idea of heaven.

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This was not intended to be a treatise on heaven.

Just a motivation for us all to get to know God

and know what we are looking forward to.

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

I always dreamed that we would have deep meaningful conversations around our dinner table, especially on holidays. But we are normal parents with four normal children who despite our best efforts could bicker about anything, complain about their favorite food, monopolize the conversation, jump out of their seats twenty times during one meal, and spill the milk. Oh wait, it was usually my husband or I who spilled the milk! (Of course, we were trying to prevent that, or some other minor catastrophe.)

Not to say that our family meals were disasters. Rarely did all of those things happen at any one meal and we had meals where none of them happened. But the conversation was more likely to have one person telling us over the period of ten minutes what happened in their dream the night before until it became so fantastic that you wondered when the dream stopped and where the imagination began. Or we parents feeling like interrogators trying to find out when a project was due and what was involved. Or heard the full and complete story of what happened in a video game. Or, well, you get it. It just wasn't the conversation of my dreams.Not to say we never had good conversations. Often they were short, so short they were almost over before we realized how deep the question had been, or how profound the insight. Like when our five year old son said, "If the earth rotated slower, days would be longer, right?"

Or when our youngest asked a question about what she was learning in science and her brother who is nine years older answered her question in detail that sounded like a textbook, but in words that she could understand.Or when our other daughter asked if we could pool our Christmas money to buy something nice for some kids at church who barely had the money to pay bus fare to church.How did these happen? We sat down to dinner with our kids and we all stayed at the table for thirty minute or more...every night. We had kids living at home for basically twenty-seven years. And we had dinner with them every night they were home.

In their late teens and early twenties jobs, practices, friends, and classes took them away more often, but if they were going to be there, we ate together. We flexed our meal schedule to make that possible.Today our kids are our friends. We enjoy getting together. I was thrilled when our German son-in-law told me he couldn't wait for Christmas because he wants his daughter to know her American cousins, "Because with family you don't have to impress anyone. You can be yourself."When our five year old granddaughter visited by herself for three days the thing she wanted to do "next time I come alone" is have a picnic dinner with us. And the event she took the most pictures of was a four generation family dinner celebrating her great grandma's 90th birthday.

My daughter-in-law asked me to come stay with her for a week while my son takes an intensive PhD class. And my other daughter-in-law and our youngest daughter are planning a road trip together.This kind of family closeness doesn't just happen. Twenty-seven years of family meals has helped. Along with these thoughts.If you feel like dinner last night was a disaster and you are tempted to feed the kids early and enjoy a quiet meal with your husband or plunk everyone in front of the TV while you eat (both options once in a while), please think again. It might seem like a failure, but the time spent together is not. I promise you!

Here's a project: take a small notebook or even a piece of paper. After dinner try to write down one good thing that happened at the meal. It might start with, "No one spilled anything," or "No one got scolded." But listen to the conversation. Maybe you will add, "Noah said 'please' and 'thank you' without prompting!" And then, "Kait told her sister she was proud of her!" Keep it handy and do this every night for a week. Or longer if you can. Or every once in a while. After a time, look back at this record. You will see a pattern of family meals having benefits in your family. I promise.Tell me some of the good things that have happened around your table recently! I'd love to hear them. Write below in the comments or at this email.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

I enjoy watching HGTV, especially where they redecorate or fix up a house. I like to see what they do and what they think is going to "pop". What amazes me is how people can think it is a good idea to make almost everything white in a house that will have real, live children living in it! And then they repurpose old, rough boards and sharp metal objects for the same house. My house will never be the "after" picture in a decorating "reveal", but I'm happy with it. Maybe I'm simple and that's why simple things give me joy; here are some things that have made me happy in my house recently.Flowers -- In the spring we went to the Farmer's Market in town and bought some beautiful annuals from an Amish stand. Looking out my window at these flowers all summer has made me smile.

Coffee table decor -- For a long time I had very little on my coffee table. If I happened to have fresh flowers, I would put them there. Otherwise I plopped a decorative bowl inherited from my husband's uncle in the middle. But I noticed that in magazines and on TV the coffee tables looked so much...better. So I started Googling how to decorate a coffee table. I finally found out that you need to search for "coffee table vignettes". I discovered that there are actually formulas to make it look nice. Briefly they are:

Color scheme--choose one that matches or complements the room.

Books--several interesting books that match the color scheme

Tray--group other items on a tray to give it cohesiveness and not just look like things you plunked together

Something tall--gives varying heights and interest

Something natural--adds life

Something quirky--conversation piece

Something personal--make it yours

A candle

What you choose can meet several objectives (like a tall candle) and you don't have to have everything every time you change it. Here's what I have right now:

One thing I like about this is the repurposed picture frame as a tray. I went to Goodwill to find a tray and found this beautiful frame. I bought the handles and my husband attached them to make it look more like a tray and less like, well, a picture frame! I'm actually quite proud of this "vignette"!Kitchen sign -- While searching for a new door sign I came across this that so aptly sums up my family meal philosophy. Bonuses: it was half price and matches my summer Americana shelf decor!

Clean cupboards -- I used mineral oil on my kitchen cupboards and they looked great...for a few days. Then the dirt would start to show through again. I turned to Google again and found this explanation of how to really clean my cupboards. It was a lot of work, but it was definitely worth it. (I also researched why Dawn detergent. Because it has ammonia which cuts the grease.) This has made me ridiculously happy.

House wrens -- When my in-laws moved into a retirement community I inherited their wren house. Every summer I have one or two broods. The father sings so beautifully and I love to watch as he tries to sell his mate on the house, they build the nest, protect it, feed the young, and this year, for only the second time, I got to watch the babies fledge.

After the babies are gone, the father doesn't stay around singing any more and I get a new appreciation for an "empty nest."New paint on the walls -- My husband and I are notoriously poor choosers when it comes to paint colors. Case in point: we have repainted our bedroom 6 times in the 8 years we have lived here! (And by "we" I mean "he".) When we moved in the living room/hall/kitchen had a nice color scheme of red accent wall, olive green accent wall, and taupe. This summer we decided the olive green had to go as it made the entry too dark, and the taupe with green undertones would have to leave with it. Eight cans of sample paint later, we came up with colors we liked and while I was at my daughter's helping with her new baby last month, he painted. We love the room-brightening results. These are before and after pictures.

Our Granddaughter's Visit -- (This is the best of all!) For the first time, we got to have a grandchild all to ourselves for three and a half days. What fun! When she saw her daddy again he asked if she had missed them, the five year old told him, "No, Daddy. I told you, I would be having too much fun to miss you!" (But the night before going home she was so excited about scaring her brothers with her mask that she could hardly settle down to sleep, so I know she was glad to get back to family, too.)

Some of my last posts have been intense, at least for me writing them. The topics are ones I feel very strongly about. But I also enjoy little things and try to take the time to thank God for everything in my life and to notice all His hand provides. So today, I decided to share some of these with you. Thanks for reading.What have you thanked God for recently?

And I did get a new sign for my door.Very appropriate, wouldn't you say?

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